'It's scary': Local UAW members strike for their jobs, better wages

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Autoworkers on the picket line in Bay View are fighting for more than just fair wages.

"It's hit home now. It's real," UAW Local 75 member Jim Leedy said.

Jim Leedy has given 19 years to the parts distribution center in Bay View and would like to stay.

“It’s always scary to hear your job could be shipped out of state," Leedy said. "I wish the company would wake up and work with us."

Friday, Leedy joined the thousands of other workers on strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the third of which is his employer. This is his, and many of his colleagues', first time on strike.

"It's scary, it is. I'm not going to lie," he said.

The national strike is focused on higher wages and better benefits. In Bay View, it is that and more, as Stallantis' CEO said this plant would shut its doors under a contract proposal given to the union, which they rejected.

"It's one of the biggest issues out there. You close this, that's 100 jobs," UAW member on strike, Tina Lake, said.

Lake, who has worked in the facility for nine years, tells CBS 58 Stallantis has suggested there would be jobs available for employees if the plant were to close, 30 minutes from Milwaukee at another plant in Belvidere, Illinois.

"People are going to have to uproot. That's not fair. That's not fair," Lake said. "I can't move away from kids and grandchildren and go to a place that I've never been to. It'd be too much."

There are also concerns about the impact the closure would have on the neighborhood.

“Every person here at least lives in the community or shops in the community, does things in the community," Leedy said. "It's going to affect Bay View. How can it not?”

Union members said they will strike until better wages and job security are guaranteed.

"We're not asking for the world, we're asking for our fair share, and it's not just for us. It's for all of the working class," Lake said.